Cooperatives ministry scores highly on revolving funds: BPKP

Tony Hotland, Jakarta

The Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) rates the 2003 nationwide distribution of Rp 153.76 billion (US$17.08 million) in revolving funds to cooperatives as "good", despite continuing glitches in its implementation.

"We've finished the 2003 audit on the cooperatives ministry's task of distributing revolving funds and we gave the office a score of 80.85 out of 100," head of the directorate of industry and distribution supervision at the board Kuswono Soesen told a media conference on Friday.

A score of 70 to 89 falls under the category "good".

Distribution of the funds was managed by the Office of the State Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), under the supervision of the Office of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare.

"We reviewed the distribution based on the precision of the target, amount of funds disbursed and the timetable. At some points and occasions, the ministry missed its planned target and the amount of money," said Kus.

Some funds, he explained, were disbursed to cooperatives that were not on the top priority list and there were occasions that a member of a cooperative received more money than he or she was supposed to.

However, Kus did not provide details on how much money went to the wrong cooperatives or members.

Such errors have lingered since the initial implementation year. The cooperatives ministry received a score of 83.47 in 2000, 78.18 in 2001 and 83.55 in 2002.

State Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Alimarwan Hanan said that he would push the working teams established in all covered regencies to improve their monitoring and tackle the problems to help avoid a negative impact.

The minister's office disbursed revolving funds amounting to Rp 350 billion in 2000, Rp 56.3 billion in 2001 and Rp 90 billion in 2002. By 2003, the office has reached around 5,174 cooperatives and 2,000 microfinancial institutions in 416 regencies.

The distribution of revolving funds to cooperatives is a part of the compensation program for low-income citizens launched in 2000 to help minimize the impact of a massive cut in fuel subsidy on this group.

There are 11 ministries involved in the program, including the ministries of Health, National Education and Social Affairs and the State Logistics Agency.

Also on Friday, Ali reiterated that there would be no writing off of bad debts owed by farmers until the President issued a decree that permitted it.

"During a meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday, we proposed that the debts be rescheduled instead of written off. We must also investigate which farmers really used the money for the proper purpose but were unable to repay, and which did not," he said.

The debts, amounting Rp 5.6 trillion, were part of a special credit facility that was channeled by the government to farmers.

Reports said on Monday that the government planned to write off the bad debt.